Image of Evil - a Dell Gothic

This is a book I specifically hunted down because of the haunting cover.  The lone woman, standing in the swamp in her flowing white dress, with a dark mansion in the background - no light in an upper story window as so many Gothics are wont to do.  The greens and blacks setting the somber mood, the moss hanging from the trees, the moon barely visible in the sky.  To me, this cover screams creepy, and so I had to know if the story could match the horror of the cover art!  Took me a while to track down a copy at a reasonable price, but I finally managed to do so.  The book is written by Rosemary A. Crawford, and from all I can find, this appears to be the author's real name and this book appears to be the only Gothic I can find that she wrote!  If she did write any others, I would sure like to find them, especially if they are as good as this one turned out to be.

 

Image of Evil was first published by Dell in November 1971. The story is told in first-person, from the point-of-view of the main character, Susan (whose name is not actually stated in the book until page 15, when another character finally calls her by her name!), a twenty-three year old clothing designer from New York who comes to Louisiana to meet a family she never knew she had.  After her parents pass, she receives a mysterious letter from one Corinna Hamilton, who claims to be her aunt (her mother's sister).  The woman invites her to come stay at Southern Moon, the Hamilton homestead, and meet the rest of her family - which includes Corinna's two children, Paul Hamilton (a lawyer) and Lacy Hamilton (a spoiled debutante), as well as the brother of Corinna's deceased husband, Cedric Raimond.  Before she can even reach the mansion, which is deep in the Louisiana bayou, she has the misfortune of meeting the deputy sheriff, Billy Ben Curtis, to who she takes an instant dislike (due to his complete lack of manners and unpleasant disposition).  Once at the great house, she meets not only the family, but also the housekeeper, Matilda, and the surly cook, Lucille.  Susan is not overly ecstatic about this sudden appearance of a family she never knew existed, and so she is somewhat reserved when she arrives ... if only she had turned around and left the moment she arrived, perhaps she would not have experienced the terrors she did.  Of course, had she left, then she never would have learned the truth about why her mother left the Hamilton family and never looked back ...

 

I will admit, the story gets off to a somewhat slow start.  Crawford goes back and forth in the first two chapters between the present, as Susan is arriving at Southern Moon (the name of the Hamilton home) and Susan's receipt of her aunt's letter, her meeting with the attorney to learn more about the invitation to Louisiana, and her not-so-great experience on her first entrance into the swampland surrounding the great house. Once all of the backstory is told, Crawford then moves forward in a more normal, linear narrative form.  Susan's first observations of the family are somewhat accurate - Lacy is spoiled and clearly has no interest in knowing her; Paul is a playboy of sorts who takes a shine on her; and Corinna is playing a part, but just what part that is, Susan is unsure.  The only one she feels she can trust is the housekeeper, Miranda, who admits to remembering her mother and slowly, as the story progresses, tells her more and more about Meg Hamilton and why she left the way she did.  Of course, the more she learns about that, the more she learns about Corinna, and the more she begins to realize there is a lot more to this story than she realizes!  Things truly start to come to light when she meets Dr. Clay Foster, a young physician who is treating Miranda's daughter Lillian - and when she tells her new family she has a date with the doctor, she finds they are quite vocal on the matter.  By no means will a Hamilton ever go out with "white trash" like Clay Foster!  This is the beginning of the battle lines being drawn, and soon enough, more truths are revealed about Corinna, about Paul, about Clay, and about Lillian - and about Rosalie, the one no one is allowed to talk about!

 

Crawford build the suspense slowly, but as it rolls along, it gets more and more intense, and as it speeds towards the climax, the terror builds, as Susan finds herself first locked in the attic where Rosalie was hidden away for a number of years, and then ultimately as she runs through the swamps at night, daring to face any danger to escape the evil plans the Hamilton family has in store for her if she were to remain at Southern Moon!  What started out rather uninteresting definitely turns into a page-turner that I could not put down.  

 

The original printing by Dell has full cover art, interrupted only by the title and author's name at the top and bottom, respectively.  However, the book was later reprinted in October 1979 under Dell's "Candlelight Intrigue" banner; while the reprint used the same cover art, it reduced it to just a smaller square under the title and author's name, cutting off portions of the top and bottom of the art, so you do not get the full effect of the image.  Personally, I prefer the full cover printing (which is the version I have).

 

While several blogs and reviews I have read online seem to find this book not overly appealing, I found it to be rather engaging, once you get past the opening sequence.  I would certainly recommend it to those who love a good Gothic read from this time period - and the Louisiana bayou setting is definitely a nice twist to the theme!

 

RATING:  8 extra bolt locks out of 10 for taking our poor heroine through the ringer, with some intensely dangerous moments and a couple of unexpected deaths! 

Dark Over Acadia - a Magnum Gothic original

This is one of those books that attracted me because of the cover.  Most gothic covers feature a variation on a young woman in a flowing dress running away from a dark, foreboding house in the background.  This cover, however, surprised me by featuring a young woman sitting in a wheelchair!  Yes, we still get the foreboding plantation house in the background (with the obligatory one light on in an upstairs window); however, the young woman on this cover is not running at all - rather, she is sitting, staring directly at the reader with an expression that tells you she is trapped and cannot escape whatever terror is waiting in that house.  Having never seen a gothic with an invalid such as this on the cover, I had to snag it and find out exactly what it was about!

Dark Over Acadia is written by Anne Talmage, who I discovered (after considerable searching!) is actually a pen name for Talmage Powell (1920-2000).  Powell began writing in the 1940s, his work appearing in many pulp magazines, such as Black Mask and Dime Mystery.  He has also had short stories appear in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.  He also wrote four books in the '60s as Ellery Queen.  From what I was able to learn, this book is the only gothic novel he wrote (and the only instance of his using "Anne Talmage" as a pseudonym, although he did use others over the course of his writing career).  The story is set in the swamp land of Louisiana in the early 1970s (the book having been published in 1971), and rather than a dark, unwelcoming house you find in most gothics, this book features a rather grand plantation manor known as Devereau House (and although it is not spelled the same, I could not help but think of Blanche Devereaux ever time I saw the name of the house and the last name of the family!).  

The main character is Diana Latham, a teacher from Kansas who travels all the way to Louisiana to spend the summer with Lucy Devereau, a friend she made while serving in the Peace Corps in the Peruvian Andes.  The two had become fast friends, and Diana was excited to spend the summer in the Devereau's great house.  But her excitement disappears when she arrives to find that her friend is bedridden and nearly completely paralyzed after a freak accident - a St. Joan statue in the crumbled chapel on the Devereau grounds fell over on her, leaving her unable to move or even speak. But Lucy begins to show signs of life when she sees Diana, and through a coded message (tapping out the letters of the words Lucy wants to say), she warns Diana that danger lurks within the walls of the house - and that her injuries were not the result of an accident, but rather, an attempted murder!  Diana is fearful at first, but her determination overcomes the fear as she realizes she must find out what did this to her friend and see that justice is served.

Talmage (Powell) provides readers with a number of quirky characters, any of whom could potentially turn out to be the evil behind poor Lucy's condition.  Lucy's father, Huxley, comes across as a kind, elderly patriarch, but the mere mention of Prospera Clantell sends him into a fury.  Lucy's brother, Antoine (Tony), is a hard one to figure out, since his outward appearance would mark him as a Cajun rebel, but his soft-spoken nature when it comes to Diana shows another side of him.  Lucy's cousin, Philip Lockridge, is all business, a dependable sort who takes a keen interest in Diana, much to the chagrin of his assistant, Robin Toutain - a woman determined to win Philip's hand and who makes no bones about removing anyone who gets in her way.  Then there is Myree, a housekeeper that Diana first sees as a "mangy old cat" (p. 46), but whose gruff exterior could just be a defense from a hard life lived.  There is also Clotidle (Cloty) Mathis, Lucy's governess, who has cared for her ward for  years and is praying Diana can get to the bottom of what really happened.  And one must not forget Ozar Fant, the Cajun drifter who lives in the swamps on Devereau property - a man that can be violent in one moment and tender in the next.  Finally, there is the regal woman known as Domina, who is a friend to Huxley and appears to know everything that happens in the swamp.  The Devereau family has its secrets, and one of those secrets has come back to exact a deadly price from this family!

I readily admit that I was engaged with trying to figure out which of these members of the cast could have caused Lucy's injuries and is now intent on getting rid of Diana.  A pitchfork launched at her from the upper floor of the barn ... locked in the mausoleum and left to die ... and more than once warned to leave Devereau House before it's too late.  I wavered a bit between a few of the characters, thinking each had a possible motive - but I was caught off-guard by the revelation of who was really behind the attacks; I did not see that coming at all!  Which, of course, made for a very nice surprise, as it kept this book from being predictable at all.  Thus, not only did the book offer a unique cover, but it provided a well-written tale of mystery and gothic suspense.

Along with the gothic, Talmage (Powell) provides readers with some of this history of this area of Louisiana. Lucy describes the area of Cajun country as "A world of its own, where the native dialect is a mixture of French, Spanish, English.  It's still more French-colonial than automated American. Fellow from the Indochina rice paddies could feel right at home there" (p. 9).  Diana also considers the Acadians who had first come to the area, driven south "when the British had wrested control of Canada from the French more than two hundred years ago" (pp. 9-10).  She even wonders "how the Acadians had picked such an unlikely, far-off destination ... Louisiana was French at the time, and the back-delta country offered peace and a chance to build in a land no one else wanted" (p. 10).  We even get a lesson on jambalaya, which Huxley explains, "was a ham and rice dish ... Jambon, French for ham, and a la ya, a sort of African for rice (p. 63).  In some ways, it felt very much like a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book from the Harriet Stratemeyer Adams era, when the books always seemed to include some sort of lesson on history, artifacts, or regions.  

This is one of those rare gothics where we actually know the name of the artist who provided the art for the cover!  The artist was Charles Lilly, who is probably best known for his painting of "Malcolm X" in 1973, which was used for the cover of Alex Haley's novel, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  The cover for this book must have been one of his earliest professional works, as he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1970 (Artist: Charles Lilly), and Dark Over Acadia was published in 1971.  The cover is apparently representational in nature, since the scene never occurs anywhere in the book - Lucy is bedridden for the entire story, never sitting up in a wheelchair at any time.  The statue that can be seen in front of Devereau House on the cover likely represents the statue of St. Joan that falls on Lucy in the chapel behind the manor.  Nevertheless, the expression on Lucy's face, along with the dark green, black, and blues of the cover give it a very high creep factor that would send a chill down anyone's spine!

Just like the last Magnum Gothic Original that I read (Ravensridge), this is another gothic that I highly recommend - well written, great story, and a gothic tale that will keep you guessing!

RATING:  10 pairs of spectacles with one lens broken out of 10 for an unusual gothic tale, Cajun-style, with some of the most unusual names I've seen to date!

Penny Parker Mystery Stories No. 16 - Swamp Island

And so we come to the penultimate Penny Parker mystery story, as we reach the 16th book in the series.  It is truly amazing to me how far this series has come, and how Mildred Wirt's writing has evolved over the course of the nine years and 17 books that were published in this series.  What started as a more-or-less typical children's mystery series has gradually grown into stories with more intricate plots, more dastardly and dangerous villains, and definitely more adult-oriented stories.  This story definitely ups the ante in all of those aspects.

Swamp Island is a story that leads readers to think the mystery is one thing, but then takes it in an entirely different direction.  Wirt opens the mystery with Penny and her best friend, Louise, sailing a flat-bottomed skiff through a local swamp to collect flowers for a banquet that her father is putting together (p. 1).  Now, right off the bat, this raises a few questions, the main one being just where in the world if Riverview?  Previous books indicated the town is only a few hours from a beach (see Voice from the Cave).  Yet, now, here the girls are making their way through swamp land to collect flowers, such as Cherokee roses, water lilies, yellow jessamine, and iris (p. 3).  A quick internet search reveals that these flowers are native to the southeastern areas of the United States; so, does that mean Riverview is located in the south (such as Florida)?  Other tidbits from the books would be more indicative of a mid-western setting, such as those clues to River Heights in the Nancy Drew books.  I suppose that is something we will never know.

Regardless, Penny stays true to nature (no pun intended), as her father had given her $20 to purchase flowers for the banquet (p. 3), which is equivalent to $350 in today's money; yet, she decides to pocket the money and gather swamp blossoms instead.  While in the swamp, the girls come face-to-face with some rather not-so-nice gun-carrying men who warn the girls away - forcing them to leave Louise's dog, Bones, behind (p. 8)!  I wonder when Louise got the dog, as she never mentioned having a dog in any prior book.  The girls learn the men are Ezekiel Hawkins and his two sons, Hod and Coon (p. 13).  You have to give Wirt credit for using some rather unusual names.  Ezekiel and Hod are both Biblical names, but Coon is an odd choice, considering its negative connotation (although, back in Wirt's day when this book was published, the word may have been more connected with hunting and working dogs).  And Ezekiel's wife's name is actually Manthy (p. 14)!  By the end of this second chapter, we get a hint at what we think will be the mystery - a radio warning to be on the lookout for escaped convict Danny Deevers, alias Spike Devons (p. 15).  It is interesting to note that "Danny Deevers" is the name of an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling, considered by many to be one of Kipling's most significant early works, which tells the story of the execution of a British soldier in India for murder.

We quickly learn that Danny Deevers was sent to prison because of some stories Jerry Livingston wrote about shortages at the Third Federal Loan Bank in Riverview (p. 17), and so readers have the expectation that the story is going to center around Deevers and his desire for revenge on the man who put him away - similar to the story of the original Cape Fear film from 1962.  But, if that is your belief, well, you'd be sadly mistaken.  Other than one incident where Jerry is knocked unconscious (p. 46), Jerry plays little part in the mystery, and as a result, so does Danny Deevers.  Instead, Penny's focus is on finding out exactly what the Hawkins men are up to in that swamp (and although she believes it is somehow connected to Danny Deevers, there are incidents that occur - such as a stolen shotgun, a last-minute save from a charging boar, and missing food - that are misdirects and red herrings that are ultimately revealed to be completely unrelated to Deevers).  While the book and overall mystery are good, the false start ended up with a bit of a let-down by the end of the story.

As usual, Wirt throws some things into the story that have real life connections.  For instance, more than once in the story there are references to Neco cigarettes - described as "one of the strongest cigarettes on the market" (p. 47).  As it turns out, NECCO was a candy company back in the day that sold chalky white candy cigarettes back in the '20s and '30s, so one might assume that Wirt perhaps had some of those as a child and perhaps integrated them into her story as a cute nod to them.  There is also the hotel where Penny's father is throwing the banquet - Hillcrest Hotel (p.21).  Back in the day, there was a hotel by that name in Toledo, Ohio, where it is said authors, artists, and business people would regularly stay (including Amelia Earhart, who stayed there in 1933).  In addition, an accident that provides Salt and Penny with an important clue occurs at the intersection of Jefferson and Huron (p. 30) - and, wouldn't you know it, but there is such an intersection in downtown Toledo, Ohio, just blocks away from the Maumee River!

And we certainly must not forget Black Island, a remote island in the middle of the swamp, which holds secrets that Penny is determined to uncover.  Now, the name of this island has several possibilities when it comes to references outside of the story.  First, the name is also the title to the seventh volume in The Adventures of Rin Tintin, a comic series by Herge (The Black Island).  It was first published in black and white in 1938, and later republished in color in 1943, just four years prior to this book being published.  Black's Island is also the name of an island off the gulf coast in Florida, which was so named after the pirate, Black Sam Bellamy, who made the island his home back in the 1700s (and in case you're interested, this particular 7-acre island is currently for sale for just $50 million!).  Also, there is another Black Island, located at the center of Muscongus Bay (in Maine).  This 15-acre island was settled by Europeans back in the early 1800s, and at the start of the 1900s, approximately 50 people lives on the island.  No doubt, there are other Black Islands out there in the world, so it leaves one to wonder which one inspired Wirt for this book!

K.S. Woerner provides the art for both the cover and the frontis piece, and I have to say, neither of them are his best work.  His art from the earlier books is definitely superior to the art in this one.  One thing I did note, however, is that in the early books of the series, Penny is depicted by Woerner with a bow in her hair on most of the illustrations; however, Penny lacks the bow in both the cover and the internal of this book, and her hair is more modern, curled style.  One wonders if he was instructed to give Penny an older appearance, and so the bow was done away with, or was it simply a matter of changing hair styles for young women from 1939 to 1947 that prompted the change.

Again, the story was not bad at all - definitely more mature storylines than in the earlier books; but, I was disappointed by the hinted mystery surrounding Danny Deevers at the beginning of the book that was never truly the main mystery of the book.  I was looking forward to the Cape Fear-style tale of a convict looking for revenge on the man who put him away, but instead got a story about bootleggers hiding in the swamp.  Well, with only one more book left in the series, I'm looking forward to see how Wirt ends her tales of Penny Parker's adventures!

RATING:  8 large puts of turtle stew out of 10 for sending Penny into more dangerous situations, while deepening the relationship between her and Jerry Livingston!